set up shop

Idioms and Phrases

Open a business, start a profession, as in Now that you've got your degree, where do you plan to set up shop? This idiom was first recorded about 1570.

Example Sentences

She married Michael in Los Angeles in 1964, and by 1971, when he was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, they had set up shop on Abbot Kinney in Venice.

From Los Angeles Times

Miller said decades of banding and tracking the owls has shown they typically don’t set up shop and breed elsewhere if banished from an area.

From Los Angeles Times

The massive defense spending cuts after the collapse of the Soviet Union devastated the industry in the county, dropping employment in the sector from about 130,000 in 1990 to less than half that a decade later — but with its heritage, talent pool and world-class universities, the region was a logical place for SpaceX to set up shop.

From Los Angeles Times

It has eased restrictions on the types of operating permits it issues in an effort to reverse a past in which it “micromanaged a little bit and maybe went overboard” on what businesses could set up shop, said David Martin, the city’s Community Development director.

From Los Angeles Times

They’ll set up shop in Sacramento for three or four years, and after that they plan on making Las Vegas their new home.

From Los Angeles Times

Related Words

• commence
• convene
• inaugurate
• initiate
• launch
• meet
• start